1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to interactive computer systems, such as interactive Web sites on the Internet. In particular, the invention relates to a computer-implemented system and method for enabling on-line customers to purchase airline travel tickets at the best possible price.
2. Description of the Background Art
There are known in the art interactive travel services on the Internet that allow consumers to purchase airline travel tickets on-line. Typically, such services require the consumer to input to the travel service server information regarding the origination and destination cities, dates and approximate times of departure, and optionally a preferred carrier. The travel service then carries out a search on a commercial on-line airline reservation system such as Apollo or SABRE.
The service then displays to the user a list of flights for which seats are listed as being available at that time, together with the fares for such flights. The user then has the option of purchasing a selected flight from the list, either by transmitting to the service credit card information over the Internet, by calling a telephone number or possibly by transmitting payment information by facsimile.
A system is also known whereby a consumer can specify a price at which she is willing to purchase an airline ticket for travel between designated cities. In order to make use of this service, however, the consumer must be willing to make an irrevocable offer, with the possible result that the consumer may have to accept tickets for a flight schedule and time of departure that may be inconvenient or less than desirable. Once a carrier has accepted the consumer's offer, the fare is automatically charged to the consumer's credit card and the consumer is not able to cancel or to receive a refund. As such, the consumer may be stuck with tickets for a flight that is inconvenient, with a carrier that the consumer may wish to avoid, or in a worst case, for a flight at a time that the consumer cannot travel because of unexpected intervening events. Conversely, if the consumer's offer is rejected by all airlines, the request is canceled and the consumer must go through the entire data entry process again to initiate another request.
Many Internet travel services also provide an e-mail service through which subscribers are regularly notified of so-called "lowest fares" available for flights between specified city pairs. However, such fares typically represent the lowest published fares as published in airline tariffs, and do not represent fares actually available on particular flights. As such, it is common that when the consumer accesses an Internet travel service website in response to such an e-mail notification, she will not be able to purchase any tickets for the so-called "lowest published fare" on any actual flight.
There remains a need in the art for an interactive travel service that not only allows the consumer to set her own price for airline travel, but once such a flight is found, gives the consumer the freedom to make a final decision as to whether to actually purchase the airline 10 tickets within a certain time frame.